It’s your moment in the limelight. You’re facing a panel of angel investors and you have just 10 minutes to convince them that your startup is worth backing. If you succeed, you’ll be given HK $500,000 along with mentorship, marketing, legal and accounting support – everything you need to jump start your business. How well prepared are you?
NEST Pitch Day is coming up on 6 September for disruptive and scalable early-stage startups in Asia. In light of that, we’re sharing 10 tips on creating the best pitch possible, straight from the NEST’s mouth. This will be helpful even if you have seen every episode of Shark Tank.
See our story on the investment incubator here.
1. Prepare your elevator pitch
Be prepared to explain your business in 2 minutes or under. If you can’t do this then you need to simplify your business proposition. Analogies like “the LinkedIn for legal professionals” works well.
2. Tell the angel investor your $ for %
Know how much capital you’re looking to raise and the percentage of equity you’re willing to exchange it for. It demonstrates that you have thought about it and will immediately help the angel investor to qualify whether they’re interested or not. Even more importantly, be ready to explain what you will spend the money on.
3. What’s your economic moat?
Coined by Warren Buffet, your ‘Economic Moat’ refers to a company’s ability to maintain a competitive advantage. How different is your product from its competitors? How quickly could your competitors replicate your product or service? The bigger the economic moat the better.
4. Show the angel investor case studies
The best way of proving that a business concept will work is to show similar examples. Show how a similar company with perhaps a slightly different market gained traction and was able to generate X percentage of revenue or users, in X amount of time.
5. Soften a bit
Many entrepreneurs present themselves as being invincible to an angel investor. This often has the adverse effect and can make an angel investor feel uncomfortable. At the seed stage, the angel investor is really investing in the person, not the business. By softening slightly, showing a little humility and even discussing past failures, you will endear yourself to the investors.
6. Practice in the set time frame
There is nothing worse than having to rush through the final 25% of your presentation in 5% of the time. If you’ve been given a set amount of time to present your business, then it’s really worth making a concerted effort to get your timing right. A simple digital watch with a countdown timer should suffice.
7. Show credibility
If you’re pitching a product, try and show credibility. For example, if you’re pitching a new type of knife, reference the Japanese knife master that helped develop the product.
8. Bring samples!
Rather than spending 10 minutes discussing a product, just show it! Don’t worry if your product is only a prototype, showing it will immediately get the attention of the angel investor and will help them to understand why it’s so special.
9. Introduce your idea to the angel investor quickly
Introduce your business idea within the first few minutes of your pitch. You may lose the attention of the room if you leave the big reveal right up until the end.
10. Think globally
Markets like Hong Kong are relatively small and so demonstrating the potential for global scalability is important. This is not just important to demonstrate to the angel investor that they can expect a sufficient return, but for the success of your business too. What markets would your target next? How quickly could you scale?
Have you applied for NEST Pitch Day yet?
NEST on Startbase.HK: NEST
